US Threatens to Leave UN Council

The Trump Administration is increasing pressure on the United Nations from publishing a blacklist of companies which do business in Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights, and eastern Jerusalem • Full Story

epa03125406 The empty seat of the representative of Israel is pictured during Iranian Foreign Minister's Ali Akbar Salehi, (not pictured), speech at the Disarmament Conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, 28 February 2012. EPA/JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT

The Trump Administration is increasing pressure on the United Nations from publishing a blacklist of companies which do business in Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights, and eastern Jerusalem.

Channel 2 News reported that US Ambassador to the UN Nikky Haley conveyed messages through diplomatic channels to senior UN officials that the US will cut all funding to the UN Human Rights Council if the blacklist the UNHRC drafted is published.

Ambassador Hailey also reportedly threatened that the US would leave the council altogether if the blacklist was published.

The Israeli delegation to the UN, which is closely following the Council’s repeated attempts to publish such a list, is waiting to see how its leaders will react to the American threat.

“The United States has been adamantly opposed to this resolution from the start,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said earlier this month. “These types of resolutions are counterproductive and do nothing to advance Israeli-Palestinian issues.”

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, blasted the blacklist as “an expression of modern anti-Semitism and reminds us of dark periods in history.”

“Instead of focusing on the terrible humanitarian problems plaguing the globe, the Human Rights Commissioner is seeking to harm Israel, and in doing so has become the world’s most senior BDS activist. I call on the UN, and the international community as a whole, to halt this dangerous policy and put an end to this anti-Israel initiative,” Danon said.